A Christmas Thank You
by genielou
Summary: Harper always wakes up at midnight on Christmas eve to watch the crowd gather at the Waverly Place Park where a giant Christmas tree stood.  On one particular night, someone else wakes up to revel on the holiday spirit with her.  ONE-SHOT fic.


Disclaimer: I do not own Wizards of Waverly Place. No profit is being made from releasing this fic.

Author's Note: MERRY FRICKIN CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I decided to take a little break from my long fic to write this short one. I really wanted to get this out as soon as possible so if there are any typos and rough transitions, sorry… I hope you will all enjoy it. Reviews (even the bad ones) will be very well appreciated. Again, HAPPY HOLIDAYS! ^_^

**A Christmas Thank You**

By genielou

Harper pressed the snooze button on her alarm clock. It was ten minutes before midnight on Christmas eve; she rose from her bed and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. This was a tradition that she had started long before residing with the Russo's. When she was younger, she used to wake up late on this very night to try to catch Santa Clause in the act. As she got older and the illusion of the holiday saint faded away, her tradition changed to her merely waking up late and shaking the gifts underneath the Christmas tree to try to guess their contents. And when she moved in with the Russo's, she had realized that the family room balcony overlooked a perfect view of the Waverly Place Park where a 30-foot tree stayed lit throughout the night.

For the past two years that she had stayed with them, she would wake up right before midnight, make the chilly trek up the two flights of stairs and deserted hallways, just to ponder her Christmas wishes while admiring the festive sight. A few times, she had seen couples walking through the park, families taking pictures by the tree (even at that late a night), and groups of friends to where the benches and picnic tables were, counting down to midnight so as to exchange gifts. At those times, she had thought more than twice to invite her best friend to revel the season with her, but decided against this with full knowledge of Alex's constant need to express her sarcasm and humor. These, Harper was not opposed to, but on Christmas eve, she preferred a silent appreciation over that which Alex could offer. And also because Alex hates to be woken up in the middle of the night.

Quickly brushing her teeth and washing her face on her basement-room sink, she put on the oversized, knitted sweater that her Nanny Franny had sent her and took a quick gander of herself in front of the mirror. The relatively 'ugly' sweater, glorifying in a florescent green and bearing a giant H in the middle, reached down to her knees with its sleeves reaching past the full length of her arms. She rolled it up so as to at least reach her wrists, unrolled her pajama bottoms to cover her legs, and slipped on a pair of flood boots before heading out the door. She was definitely a sight to see, mismatching every single thing that she had on; it was a good thing that the rest of the Russo family was usually asleep at this time of the night.

Once she reached the family room, she slowed her pace to silence her steps. The room was still quite messy from the earlier festivities. Alex had decided to have an impromptu Christmas party and had invited what seemed like almost half of the Wizarding Community. Her parents had been so mad, but soon, as the afternoon progressed, their mood lightened and they eventually decided to enjoy themselves. Harper had spent the entire time either pretending to be a fellow Wizard or hiding from the Wizards Professors and Authorities (oh boy, was she surprised when she saw the troll in the room). She mostly relied on Uncle Kelbo's help in hiding her, although he himself was mostly distracted from trying to pull off various pranks and tricks.

Suddenly, a floating greenery decorated with a red ribbon and a bronze bell appeared in front of her. She jumped slightly to keep the thing from hitting her face. _I almost forgot about that_, she thought to herself. The floating mistletoe had been one of Uncle Kelbo's tricks to try to spread the holiday mood. The plant appeared, disappeared, and then reappeared again in various places of the building, even the outside areas. The nearby locals who encountered it had a fair time trying to figure out the magic trick behind the disappearing mistletoe; although, eventually, the fun of having to kiss a significant other distracted them enough to merely shrug it off. Harper, herself, had a difficult time avoiding kisses because the blasted thing kept appearing whenever she was in front of Hugh Normous. If she had thought that her boyfriend was the most clueless man in the world, she thought differently now that she had met Hugh, the supposed giant.

Reaching the double doors that led out to the balcony, she gripped the handle, took a deep breath to ready herself, and then pushed it open. A mist of chilly air assaulted her, causing her to shiver. She stepped onto the snow-filled balcony, careful not to slip, and twisted the upper lock of the door to keep it from completely shutting close. She let it swing back before proceeding forward.

Placing her hands on the cold concrete railing, she leaned forward to get a better look at the park. The snow had stopped falling for the evening and all that was left was the white blanket it had placed over the entire city. The giant Christmas tree, especially, looked spectacularly grand. The brightly lit colors complimented its white surroundings beautifully. And the bright star on the very top of it seemed to be shining brighter than the moon. She could see the crowd underneath fairly well; and there were a lot of people present. She saw the usual, and yet it felt as if there were more people than the previous year; more specifically couples. In fact, right in the middle of the crowd to the far right was an old couple posing for a picture. The crowd seemed to be cheering them to do something, and this became evident when the couple kissed each other. Harper sighed aloud.

"Romantic, isn't it?"

Harper jumped at the question. She turned to see Justin with his hand on the door handle. "Hey."

"Hey," she breathed, dumbfounded. It was amazing how his mere presence could still affect her at such a stage in her life. And at such a late hour in the night, he was just as mismatched as she was. While she was wearing an oversized sweater, he was similarly wearing an oversized t-shirt that she knew to have come from his college of choice. He had gone to the school's College Day and had hoped to get a souvenir from this college but they had run out of his size. The long-sleeve shirt underneath was just as large, falling near his knees, and the sweatpants that he wore was so baggy they almost looked like a giant skirt.

"I've been coming here for the past few nights now just to see that," he said, gesturing at the giant tree. "I didn't expect you to be here though."

She moved slightly when he proper both elbows on the railing. "I-," she started, but the chill caught her breath. She tried again, "I couldn't sleep."

Justin nodded in understanding. "Yeah, that's why I've been coming here."

Harper frowned at him. She was quite sure of why he hadn't been able to sleep. This year's Christmas was the first that he will be spending without Juliet, the love of his life. The rest of the family had been trying to be subtle about the subject, and she had tried her best to do the same. But for whatever reason, she apologized to him before she could stop himself. She nervously looked away when she couldn't think of how to change the subject, only to glance back when he heard him chuckle.

"Don't worry about it," he told her, his eyes still glued to the scene before them. "I mean, yeah, I'm sad, but I'm mostly concentrating on how I should be getting used to it."

Not sure how to respond, Harper remained silent. She, instead, tried to distract herself with the images that were unfolding before her. More couples have now gathered by the Christmas tree, hugging and kissing. She didn't realize that Justin had taken to observing her.

"Harper," he started. "Don't look so grim. We've talked this over, remember? I'm over her. I'm moving on."

She was confident of his sincerity, but she was still unsure of his true feelings. She merely smiled sadly at him, trying to cover her discontent and failing at it.

Justin saw through this and smirked to himself. "Yeah, I know," he said, more to himself than to her. "But at least I'm trying." His answer was a smile. "And you're helping me with that."

Harper blushed. "Well, you're one of my best friends. We're almost like family," she added. "It's what we do for each other, right?"

"Right," replied Justin. "Almost like family," he repeated in a whisper.

The crowd below started singing; the lyrics of their carols reached clearly to the balcony.

Harper sighed again. "So romantic," she thought aloud.

She was staring ahead like a child looking at a new toy. Justin merely looked at her, admiring the purity that she displayed. The different shades of colors reflected on her pale skin, and little tendrils of her hair nudged every so often to the slender move of the wind. Her lips were faintly open as she unconsciously started singing along with the now-unified Christmas carol.

"Harper," he started as he let himself be immersed with the holiday spirit. "Thank you."

Harper turned to him with raised eyebrows. "What?"

Suddenly, a mistletoe appeared above them. A tiny "oh" came out of Harper's lips before Justin leaned down and kissed her.

It was a simple kiss. Not like the passionate kind that movies usually ended with, or the silly pecks that the comedic genre provided. They weren't even holding hands; they weren't even touching each other in any other way. It was just a simple kiss, wherein he simply pressed his lips firmly, but gently, onto hers and simply savored that exact moment where they were united, if only through this. It was just so—simple.

After he relaxed his lips to release hers, he lingered there awhile longer, with only a few inches to separate their connection from each other. She held her breath as she kept her eyes closed; his were only vaguely open.

"I said," he whispered, his eyes shyly casted down. "Thank you."

He pulled away slowly. She opened her eyes as he did so but she kept them from looking up at him. When she finally did look at him, he had a tiny smile on his face. He placed a forefinger to his lips as they curled even more.

"Don't tell Zeke," he said with amusement in his eyes.

Harper wasn't sure what happened after that. Everything else seemed so insignificant. She only knew that, shortly after the carols stopped; Justin placed a hand on her back before saying "good night" and leaving her to her thoughts. She stayed there awhile until the cold became too much, forcing her to reenter the family room. Her mind remained blank as she glided through the house, almost as if she was still dreaming. Once reaching her room, she immediately went back to bed, forgetting to remove her sweater and boots entirely.

She wasn't able to sleep for the rest of the night.


End file.
